Womanhood în the Black Novel

A reading of Beloved and The Color Purple proved helpful in understanding the life of the Afro-American women as the view of the fiction used in these novels, reflects the realities of those times. What these novels state is that the African-American woman remains a heroine no matter the hardships she has to surpass.

My motivation for this theme came from the fact that the presence of women in the American past has by no means been evident in a traditionally male dominated historiography. Thus in “His-Story” women have been largely invisible because of the two groups which have traditionally been treated as inferior by American society—Blacks and women. Giving voice to the characters of these novels the paper aims to let the whole Black womanhood speak as these characters are representative for all the African-American women of those times.

The first chapter deals with the historical and the political insight and the effects it had on the issues of slavery and racism. The chapter also introduces the Black woman in her various positions: as a slave, a lover, a wife, a friend, a mother and a daughter. It is given an account of the life of the poor Black women who must suffer not only isolation due to gender and skin colour but also women who suffer greatly at the hands of Black men. The power of women is an issue that utters the message sent by the female characters which teaches that if there is a struggle, someone will overcome it, that the power of surviving lies in the strength of leaving behind the baggage of feelings. Spirituality is a domain in the life of the African-American women that gives an aid to surpass the hardships due to the institution of slavery.

The second chapter presents slavery and racism in its real form by examining how the institution of slavery and its effect-racism degraded African-American women from humans to the state of animals. The marks of punishment give a complete account of the dismissed and rejected freedom of the Afro-American women. By dealing with slavery I aim to force the reader to recognize the existence and conditions of slavery in a world that would rather forget that such sufferings ever existed.

The third chapter deals with the femininity of the female characters by particularizing them and endowing them with the sort of specific and idiosyncratic traits that make them mixed and even fallible characters neither good nor bad but merely human and real. This chapter also examines the theme of love and in what sense love is related to slavery being aware of the fact that a “too thick love” is a result of slavery.

The forth chapter relates to he power of Black women presenting the development of the African-American women into independent women as a result of some supportive relationships whatever form they take: female relationships, romantic relationship, friendly relationship or mother-daughter relationships.

I will proceed now to reveal the life of some African-American female characters representative for the Black womanhood.